Fighting the Current
by Lady of the Phoenix
Summary: No system is perfect, something Eridan has been trained to understand on a deep level since he was a child. Raised by the infamous Tethys Hydrus, and moirail to the Imperial Heiress, he is party to some of the darkest secrets of the history of the Empire. Only when the movement rears its head that Eridan understands the damage the past can cause. Lives Under the Pink Moon - Part 5
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Welcome to the new story of the series. This one, as you can likely tell, is Eridan's story. This story, like others of the series, has its own quirk to it, which you should understand by the end of the chapter.

Also worth noting is that I'll be using some fantrolls for this story, and in the future, to help me populate the world. This chapter includes one of those trolls: Alaeza Cerasi belonging to Jormungandrising of Tumblr.

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Fighting the Current – Chapter 1

There was a nervous sort of energy that filled the corridor which connected the private section of the imperial residency complex to the very public grandballblock. Part of it had to do with the mass of energy that came with nights like this. A larger part was the excitement of the youngest of those assembled in the hall, who were told that for the first time they would be allowed to stay up long enough to enjoy the full festivities that were offered. The smallest part was the cautious tension that came with any highly public display of the royals. The greatest part was from those old enough to understand why they had been asked to curtail tradition for the sake of doing what was proper.

For Eridan Ampora the tension came from something else entirely. It came from the way his guardian, the great Enforcer Generali Tethys Hydrus, was holding herself. There were few others who would be able to read the tension in her, who spent the better part of their lives working under her in the Enforcers that sought to read her who would never pick up on the details. He was in a unique position, though, and he could read it in the way that his guardian was resting her weight unequally on her feet, one knee locked, and her violet tinted shades pushed up to fully cover her eyes. They were little signs that some of the best fighters might pick up because of how wrong they were in the realm of fighting, but ones that Eridan understood on a deeper level. Tethys wasn't careless enough to let herself be so off on her fighting edge. More than that, as much as Tethys liked her shades, she never let them fully obscure her vision, preferring to glance over the tops of them when she was taking in the area around her, ever vigilant for signs of trouble.

In any other situation Eridan might have thought her thoughts were elsewhere, on some case or recruit or development with the whole hemohierarchist rumors, but that wasn't even possible. Tethys never allowed herself to be distracted when she wore the black and white Enforcer Imperial dress uniform. His guardian was talented at flipping off the switches of her concerns when she was being called to act as the formal guardian of the Empress, or really when anything important involved her royal moirail. In a way Eridan could understand, but he'd never been able to perfect the same compartmentalization when it came to his own regal moirail, but he didn't have her experience. Still, that didn't quite explain why his guardian was standing there, so off balance, occasionally turning her head just a bit to look back toward where the end of the procession line where the Heiress and Empress stood.

"Eridan," she finally said, her voice whisper low and pitched just for him.

"Ma'am?" he acknowledged, equally quiet, even going so far as to not meet her gaze. Sometimes he wondered how strange other trolls his age would think it was that almost half of his conversations with his guardian occurred when they weren't even looking at each other. The reason for it at the moment was clearly related to the giggling group of young, begowned fuchsias who were excitedly gossiping and shuffling around and causing their minders no amount of distress as they attempted to keep the girls in some semblance of order for the procession. Clearly whatever was bothering Tethys was something she didn't want to worry the girls with. Some of them had delicate sensibilities, and things Tethys worried about were never appropriate for such sensibilities.

"Antees," Tethys observed, seemingly too herself, "I don't fully remember assigning her to the Heiress for this event. I could have sworn that she was to be assigned to the podium before we began..."

She didn't need to say anything else, didn't bother to give him a direct order. All she had to do was comment and Eridan found himself pushing off of the wall to stride down the line and toward the Heiress and Empress. The minders of the younger fuchsias—especially Lady Reidra, the eldest of the Empress's younger sisters, who had given her life over to caring and education of the fuchsias over these sweeps—shot him a variety of sharp looks for stepping from the line and setting a poor example to the flock of girls. Of course there came a pretty substantial ability to ignore such looks when one wore the Enforcer uniform, and that ability only increased when one was the future Generali, trained from pupation to lead. Nor did it hurt to have it so widely known that he was the Heiress's moirail. It was that latter part that gave him the most wiggle room right now. A troll his age going to speak with his moirail in an environment as tense as this was quite understandable. After all, this was the first time that Eridan was joining the official procession of dignitaries since his official recognition as the Secondar of the Enforcers.

"Eridan!" Feferi bubbled as he arrived at her side and snapped a smart salute to her. "You don't need to do things pike that for me."

"Today is a formal occasion, my Heiress. What more cod you expect from me?" he asked, keeping his head bowed at the exact angle that was appropriate when one was speaking to the Heiress.

"To act pike my moray-eel," she giggled even as she curled a delicate and almost astoundingly strong hand under his chin and forcing his head up so he was only looking down as much as was necessary to meet her eyes, which meant she wasn't moving his head too much. After all, he had quite a bit of height on her, which had only happened in the last sweep and a half. The difference wouldn't last forever if her bloodline was any indication, Eridan noted as he glanced as the Empress and her sister Alaeza, as the two older fuchsias almost rivaled some of the purplebloods Eridan knew.

"Well, if you infished," Eridan teased before starting to straighten out the tiara perched on Feferi's head. "What's Alaeza doing here?"

Normally the fuchsias of the Empress's pupation didn't act as members of the royal entourage, long since set within their own lives and tasks. Only Alaeza and Reidra remained living within the palace walls as their duties held them close to the imperial family. Reidra was responsible in full for the current pupation of fuchsias and would remain with the palace until all were settled with their lines of work before going back to the job she had held for sweeps. Alaeza, though, had lived in the palace for the whole of her life, moving straight from her youth into the role of the official keeper of the records of the Imperial Dynasty. Her tasks ranged from maintaining the Empress's schedule to archiving copies of all records that passed through the Empress's hands, to even acting as a secretary and keeper of the Empress's personal journals to be given over into the hands of the Heiress upon her ascension to the throne. The Imperial journals were said to be filled with observations, suggestions, and words of wisdom from previous Empresses to their successors. Alaeza existed almost within the shadows of Imperial life, observing but not observed. To have her here, now, was almost shocking to Eridan.

"They're debaiting the finner details of a meeting the Empress haddock last night," Feferi sighed, rolling her eyes at the pair behind her in the most obvious way possible. The older fuchsias quite pointedly ignored her. "Pike they codn't glub aboat it later."

"If my guardian's taught me anything, she's taught me that sometimes you've got to act like you won't have time to make sure you will. Shore, sometimes it feels like you're being overly cautious, but sometimes you really are making time that can't be found elsewhere," Eridan observed, shaking his head.

"Well, just because she taught you it doesn't mean it's right," Feferi countered, the cutest pout she could manage on her lips. "This is an important night and she's wasting it pike this!"

"It is hardly a waste," Gyliea announced, finally turning her attention to Eridan and Feferi. "Alaeza has been to the archives and performed some much needed research on historical encounters with the Mourning Empire, which provides new insight into yesterday's meeting."

"Oh," Feferi mumbled, and Eridan couldn't help but reach out and take her hand in his own. There were few things that demanded so greatly of the Empress and Heiress's time as the return of the Mourning Empire to the borders of Beforan space. Every troll learned early in their school feeding to fear their return. It was for that reason that Eridan had come to believe in acting as if time was something that would be hard to come by, even for a violet blood. If the Empress was concerned with the potential return of the Mourning, well, Eridan for one wasn't going to hold her lack of attention for even as important an event as tonight against her.

"Forgive me, Empress," Feferi continued, bowing her head as if she had been reprimanded. "If it pleases you, I would like to borrow Lady Alaeza's time to learn moray aboat this later."

"If Alaeza feels time came be made," Gyliea agreed, smiling kindly at Feferi before turning her head in an unspoken question to her sister.

"Of course, my lady," Alaeza said, bowing her head at precisely the right angle to show respect to superiors. Eridan could see the annoyance flash over both Feferi and Gyliea's faces, they didn't hold as closely to proper formal manners as Alaeza seemed to, and almost seemed offended when the woman acted so before them. "But if you will both please excuse my impropriety, it is growing late. I should leave you to the festivities. If I might beg my leave..."

"Of course, sister," Gyliea sighed, the briefest dismissive gesture punctuating her words. And, of course, Alaeza took the chance to all but scuttle away from the other fuchsias. "When I was younger I used to say she would develop a spinefish one night. Looks like I was wrong."

"But she's so sweet," Feferi countered, smiling up at the Empress.

Eridan just smiled and remained silent as the two most powerful trolls on the planet started to gossip between themselves. It was really the moment he had been waiting for, as with the two fuchsiabloods so focused on each other, Eridan could finally turn his attention to the reason he had come so far back in the procession line.

"Secondar Ampora," Visionar Antees Pithya greeted him before he could even open his mouth to address her. "My assignment to this location was unexpected."

"How did you know what I was going to ask?" Eridan mumbled under his breath as he tried not to stare at the eyepatch that covered what he knew to be a glowing golden eye.

"It's not difficult to presume the reasons for some behavior, even without my vision to guide me," she responded, voice as still and deadpan as he'd ever heard it from her. "Your surreptitious arrival under the pretense to speak with your moirail is wafer thin. The Generali clearly sent you, and the only reason to do so is to question my sudden reassignment to this position in the assemblage. All I know is that when I arrived this evening I was told that this was where I was to be, instead of by the podium. I have no answers for you, for none have been given to me."

"Well, at least it confirms something," Eridan sighed and shook his head at the information. "Keep an eye on them, okay?"

"I will spare both," Antees agreed, raising a hand to finger the patch that covered her eye. "Nothing remiss will occur on my watch."

"I'm sure of that," Eridan agreed, before turning his attention back to his moirail and Empress as if he had never stopped focusing on them. "Forgive the interruption, my Empress, but Lady Alaeza was correct. I should be getting back to my position."

"Of course," Gyliea sighed, waving him off with the same gesture she had given her sister. Eridan bowed deeply as he stepped back a few paces before at last turning and striding away from the royal duo. There was little he could do now but return to his guardian and commanding officer and wait.

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"But I don' wanna..."

"I didn't ask you," his guardian snapped as she stopped to glare down at him.

Eridan couldn't help but cringe at the anger in her eyes, and were it not for the fact that her hand was almost painfully tight around his he would have pulled away and run off rather than let her be upset with him. It felt like she was always upset with him these nights. First thing when he woke up she fed him and then sent him away with some stranger to go to this big building filled with lots of other strangers and kids his age where the adults would talk at him for hours and hours and yell at him when he was wrong and some of the kids were mean and teased him when he didn't understand what the adults wanted of him at first. Then, when he got home, she would come back and seem angry at him for reasons he couldn't understand and would plop him down in his room in front of his television to watch shows that had more adults talking at him about things and asked questions even though they never listened when he answered them. After that she would sit him down on the floor of the officeblock and talk to him about what the adults had been telling him all night and asking him questions to make sure he was paying attention, and then she would tell him new things and expect him to listen and it was all too much so that he was almost crying when dinner came before he was sent off to bed. It wasn't quite like what it had been only a sweep ago, when his guardian had been there for him whenever he needed her.

One of the other kids at school said it was because his guardian didn't like him anymore and regretted taking him in. Sometimes he thought the other kid was right.

"Do you hate me?" Eridan found himself asking, even though he didn't mean to say it. His guardian was going to be so mad at him for asking, so very very mad. Adults didn't like it when you questioned them.

Instead of glaring his guardian's eyes went almost impossibly wide, her super pretty purplely-blue-red eyes so big like they were a cartoon. She didn't yell, didn't squeeze his hand, didn't shaker her head and just leave him behind. No, she went down on one knee so she was at his level and swept him up into her arms. Eridan almost wanted to cry because she hadn't hugged him like this in what felt like forever. She held him tight like happiness and cooed soft, mean nothing words into his ears, and swayed back and forth like she used to when he got hurt and she promised it would get better. Back then he believed it every time, and this time was no different. Okay, so maybe he didn't keep from crying. Maybe he buried his face in her coat and sobbed quietly after he'd wrapped his own arms around her neck. It felt good. It felt right.

"Oh Eridan," she said at last, still swaying him back and forth like she used to. "Of course I don't hate you. I love you very, very much. You're my perfect little boy. Why would I ever hate you?"

"You... you... just don... seem... ta like... me no more," he sobbed out, and as he did her arms tightened around him.

"Eridan, my sweet little moonbeam," she whispered, her own voice sounding so very sad. "My precious flounder. Did I make you think I didn't love you? Oh little one, that isn't it at all. I've just been so busy lately..."

"Is that why you make me go ta that place with the adults?"

"You mean the school? Eridan, you have to go to school to learn things. So you can grow up strong and smart."

"Like you?" he asked, finally looking up at her.

"Just like me."

"Why can't you teach me?" he insisted, his fins drooping with his sadness.

"My job means I have to spend a lot of time working and not much with you. I'm sorry about that, but my job is really important."

"What is it?"

His guardian, Tethys, chuckled far back in her throat, making her chest rumble in a wonderful way that Eridan always loved to feel against his cheek. "I keep people safe. That's my job."

"People like who?"

"Well, would you like to meet someone I keep safe?" she asked, smiling down at him.

"Yes!" he cheered, grinning back at her.

"Well we're going to see them right now."

"Them?"

"The Empress and her Heiress."

Eridan's eyes went wide, unbelieving. He was going to meet the Empress and Heiress? His guardian knew them? No one at school was ever going to believe him about this.

"So what do you say, Eridan? Do you want to go now?"

He nodded, and that was all his guardian needed to smile at him widely, a look full of pride. Eridan loved it when she looked at him like that. It made his whole body tingle with happiness.

"Yes!"

"Wonderful. Now, if you promise to behave like a little gentleman and walk on your own, I'll even ask the Empress if you can go play with Feferi while we talk. I hear she's got some awesome building toys."

"Really!"

"Yep. All sorts of colors."

By the time they made it to the seaskimmer his feet hurt in his new shoes. When the skimmer reached the underwater entrance to the palace his new coat was all sorts of itchy. Before they made it far enough in to the palace for his guardian to hush him and hurry him along for their meeting he found the air too dry in the palace and his fins felt all crinkly. In the end though he made it, all the way, on his own two feet, and his guardian whispered her praises to him before knocking on a pinkish door that was so huge that it was like three whole seaskimmers could swim through it, one on top of another on top of another. It was so big that Eridan was pretty sure that even the really big adult with the purpley eyes at school who was almost as big as a hive could fit through easily.

For how big it was, though, it opened like a normal door, and soon the pretty thing was creaking open and Eridan was left staring up at a really tall, really pretty adult with eyes as pink as the door and thick black hair gathered up in the biggest braid he'd ever seen before. Without a word she tilted her head kindly to his guardian, before following the line of Tethys' arm down to where her hand gripped his reassuringly. Her eyes went wide like the moons and she smiled and crouched down to look at him.

"Who is this little gentleman?" the woman asked, her voice low and breathy like the rush of air into the airlock at their hive. Her face was pretty, like a seashell in shape, all big and rounded at the top and coming to a pretty point at the bottom. She had put some kind of finger paint around her eyes and on her lips as well, long stripes that made him think about the pretty colors on shells.

"This is Eridan, my ward. Eridan, say hello to Lady Reidra. She is the minder of the Heiress, and sister to the Empress."

"Hello Lady Reidra," Eridan parroted carefully at his guardian's prompting.

"How old is your little one?" Reidra asked, returning her attention to his guardian.

"Nearly two and a half sweeps," Tethys provided, smiling proudly at Reidra. "He started his schoolfeeding recently."

"Well, guardianship looks good on you," Reidra commented, taking a step back to clear the doorway for them. "Gyliea is waiting for you in the sittingblock. Would you like me to..."

"I promised Eridan he could meet the Empress if he behaved himself," his guardian said. "And he held up his part of the deal."

The pride in his guardian's voice made Eridan so happy that he stood up as tall as he could and tried to look like he was nearly three already. It was nice when his guardian was proud of him. It meant he had done something to make her happy, and there was nothing better than when his guardian smiled at him.

"Of course. I'm sure she'd be happy to see him," Reidra answered as she closed the door after them upon entering the block. "Right this way..."

Eridan's eyes darted around the block as his guardian led him after Reidra, taking in everything he could see until at last his eyes came to rest on the most interesting thing around. He stopped in his tracks and stared at the little troll girl who was playing with a set of colorful toy fishes and not even paying attention to anyone else around her.

"Eridan," Tethys insisted, tugging at his hand to get his attention. "Eridan, what are you looking at?"

"She's pretty," Eridan responded, still staring at the girl. "Can I..."

His guardian just chuckled and shook her head. "Okay. But you have to come meet the Empress later. Now play nice and remember that she's smaller than you and not as strong as you yet. You could hurt her and that would be bad..."

"I won't hurt her," Eridan promised as his guardian released his hand. "I won't let anything hurt her!"

It was a promise in the heat of the moment that he didn't know he would strive to keep for the rest of his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Sorry I've been gone so long. There has been even more stupid shit going on in my life lately and this is really the first chance I've had to sit down and write what needed to be written. But I'm back and hopefully we can get this into some smooth sailing territory. See the end of the chapter for credits for the fantrolls I've borrowed for this chapter. Would have had this up sooner but I lost half of the chapter and had to recover from the depression before rewriting.

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Fighting the Current – Part Two

Silence overcame the group as the doors before them opened. There wasn't a sign beyond that signals that the procession was about to start. Even the tenders of the tittering flock of young fuchsiabloods were silent and still as the movement began, starting with the youngest of the girls, little Laeris actually very still and attentive and for once not defaulting to her prankster nature. She had been so proud when Reidra had told her about her duty to lead everyone into the celebration. Maybe it was the honor of being the first of the proud fuchsiabloods who would enter the hall that had calmed her down. She had started forward with no command, continuing right past Eridan and Tethys as they stood aside for the girls to enter the room. While they had held the head of the line while it was waiting, that had been more because of Tethys's concern for security than because they belonged there. Now they watched as the girls filed out, their dresses flowing around them like silk veils as they moved with all the regal power and assurance one expected of the fuchsiabloods. It wasn't until the oldest of the flock had swept past them that Eridan and his guardian reinserted themselves into the line and started forward.

Part of being an Enforcer was in being attentive to the small details. As he strode forward he instantly started to seek out the little things that other trolls wouldn't notice. There was a difference in the way his boots and his guardian's sounded on the marble floors, a clear sign that she was wearing the heavier combat boots she wore when she was worried there was a chance for a fight. The tension in her stance wasn't gone either; Eridan could see that in the cant of her shoulders. From behind him he could hear the quietest whisper of fabric against hair as Antees removed her eyepatch and likely hid it away in her pocket. And more than anything he was aware of the way that the watery blue light that spilled from the wall sconces was giving way to a more vibrant whitish-pink light that lit the grandballblock. The light in this hall was meant to cater toward seadweller vision, not land, and there it was clearly lit for the masses.

Soon, too soon maybe, Eridan's feet halted him in place, coming together smartly before turning sharply to face the rest of the room and the assembled trolls. Routine makes him take the large step back, putting him between the chairs set aside for the flock and the slightly more intricate ones meant for Feferi and the Empress. His place was between the flock and the Heiress, their protection for the evening. Antees had already taken her own place a half a step behind the chairs meant for the Empress and her heir. Tethys had continued on to the other side of the chairs, closest to the podium; her eyes already darting around the room. Eridan wanted to do the same, but he found himself, as always, drawn to the faint scent of salt and lavender that was Feferi's particular scent. Without waiting to be asked he held his hand out to her and she smiled as she laid her delicate fingers in his, slowly turning past him in a oft rehearsed move that made her dress swirl around her gracefully as she came to a stop before her chair and daintily sitting on the very edge of it, her legs crossed just so at the ankles to create the perfect image of a cultured and elegant young woman. He actually had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling at the poise his moirail displayed. She was going to be a wonderful Empress some sweep. She would rule not only because of the respect and belief of her people, but because they truly loved her, just as he did. Okay, so maybe not just as he did, she'd only really need him as a moirail until his passing, but that was a long time away if he had anything to say about it.

The Empress must have passed him while Eridan was so enraptured with his moirail, because when Eridan finally tore himself from staring at Feferi from the corner of his eye he could see Empress Gyliea standing before the podium, looking as regal and collected as she ever did. She looked ready to speak, a speech Eridan had heard rehearsed a few times over the last nights' going over the arrangements with Feferi in the royal meetingblock. It was his familiarity with the words, the long sweeps he had spent becoming less enamored with the majesty of the Empress in favor of that of his moirail, and duty itself, that found Eridan's eyes casting about the room. It was half a heartbeat before a handful of silver flashes that Antees shouted and lunged from behind him to tackle Feferi into him. Training jumped to the fore of his pan and Eridan was suddenly moving away from his moirail, lunging for the nearest of the younger fuchsiabloods. His only thought was to ask just what had made Antees cry out like that, and only later would he be told about the scene that played out in her vision and in the grandballroom just after he moved to protect as he was trained to do. All he knew was the sound of the explosion behind him and a sick, sinking feeling that there was only one place it could have come from.

The screams started almost instantly, coming at the same time Eridan couldn't help but note a sharp, aching pain coming from the back of his head. That, though, was a concern to be filed away for later review as he lifted his head from the back of Alrena's neck and let his eyes take in the state of the room. What he saw was a mixture of chaos and discipline: there were screaming trolls everywhere, mixed with ones who had fallen to the floor both near to the podium and far further away. It was more than clear that the trolls furthest away hadn't fallen because of the explosion—what else could it have been—but because of some other foul business. Business that came from the least expected source: the uniformed Enforcers all around the room. The trolls all around the room that should have been moving to secure the doors and then see to the injured were instead moving methodically through the room, knocking out any troll who failed to heed them or who stood in their way. Some trolls were lucky, only hit in the stomach with a balled up fist, but Eridan could see others being beaten, or dealt hard blows to the horns or backs of the heads. These weren't the men and women that he and his guardian had chosen. They weren't Enforcers.

"Stay here, keep your head down," Eridan ordered Alrena, knowing she would obey and try to keep her sisters quiet. Something was clearly wrong and she had long since learned that obeying Eridan in an emergency was the best choice. He only hoped she would be able to handle the others.

"Fef," Eridan hissed as he turned around and crawled his way over to where his moirail was, Antees's body laying over hers. The sound of his voice apparently managed to achieve what the screaming had not, awakening the Heiress and the Visionar. Immediately Antees lifted herself from Feferi's back, groaning in pain as she did. There was a hunk of wood sticking out of her arm, and Eridan cringed to think of just where it had come from and what it meant. Still he had refused to look past Feferi toward where the podium was supposed to be. Sometimes there were things one was certain of that they didn't want confirmed, and this was one of those times. Instead he turned his whole attention to looking over Feferi, making sure she wasn't hurt.

"Eridan?" she asked, lifting her head and staring at him in a daze. "What's..."

"Are you hurt?" he insisted, raising his hands to hold her face staring at him rather than allowing her to turn back to look for her guardian. This wasn't the time for either of them to have to face that. Even as he asked he started to look her over, quickly taking in what he could of her state. Her dress, her wonderful fine dress that had been made for the occasion, was covered with soot and torn in places, but he couldn't see a single drop of her precious blood tainting the fabric. Of course that wouldn't tell him anything about any internal injuries. Only an experienced healthtender could do that, and he wasn't even an amateur. There was only so much he could do beyond worry over her.

"I'm fine," she questioned more than stated, and Antees shot Eridan a look that said she agreed with Feferi's conclusion. Well, at least that was something.

"Ampora..." Antees added, her voice hoarse. "This isn't over. It..."

The yellowblood suddenly doubled over in pain, both hands moving to cover her eye.

"Visionar?"

"I..." That was all she got out before her eyes rolled up in their sockets and she fell forward, only to be caught by Feferi. That couldn't be a good sign. Either whatever this was had some kind of power to counteract Antees or knock her out, or whatever she had seen was far too much for her pan to handle and it had offered her the peace of unconsciousness to compensate.

"Fef, we need to get you over to..." Eridan started to say, only to have his eyes finally drawn to the scene beyond her. Where the podium had once stood there was a crater that still burned and spewed out thick smoke. Just behind it his guardian, her uniform torn and bloody, knelt by a blackened mass that could only be one thing.

Nor did the horror stop there. No sooner had Eridan laid his eyes on the grisly sight than the creaking of doors and new motion drew his eyes. Seven trolls were framed in the light of the door, a set of five surrounding one who was a few steps in front of the others, and a second who was half a step behind the central one and just a step to the right. As they strode forward Eridan found himself picking out the little details of the group, how the five in the back were clearly violets arranged as some sort of honor guard. They were of little concern to him, though, as the identity of the other two registered in his pan. The one who seemed to have taken an escort position was a violet as well, one far too familiar to him to be anything other than upsetting to see here. In fact, the only thing that made it worse was the fact that the man—Kythal Ampora, an Enforcer who had been his guardian's kismesis and who shared a name and sign with Eridan—carried an oversized plasma rifle known as Ahab's Crosshairs. Plasma rifles themselves were banned planetside, meant only for work with planetary defenses and defense forces. They were just too destructive to be used on flesh and blood unless there was no other choice. Of course Eridan had been trained in such weapons, along with many others, but even he didn't dare carry one in a place like this.

Worst of all was the female figure Kythal followed. There was no mistaking the poise and grace of a fuchsia blood, though this was one that Eridan had never met himself. No, the woman who bore the golden, two headed warfork could only be one person, and Eridan trembled in rage to see her. He'd heard stories after all, from Tethys and even the Empress herself. This woman with the dark fuchsia gown and braided hair almost as thick as his waist could only be Veruna. She was a woman out of fable for anyone who wasn't in the closest confidences of the Generali of the Enforcers. To someone like him she was an all too real possibility that had finally reared its head.

"We've got to move," Eridan found himself saying, and before the words even registered in his own pan Feferi was standing with Antees in her arms, looking down at him with a mixture of determination and fear filling her eyes.

"Eridan!" his guardian's voice cut through Eridan's shocked stare up at his moirail, "get the girls to safety!" It took a lot to ignore how her voice hitched with a sob.

"Eridan," Feferi repeated, pushing past him to flee into the gathered group of her sisters, still clutching Antees. The yellowblood she passed over to Alrena without a word, then pulled her sisters around her, as much as comforting presence as to protect the Enforcer they had taken into their midst. He had to give it to the girls, even in the worst situation they were brave.

Feferi's eyes, though, were locked on something over his shoulder, and Eridan was forced to turn and face what she seemed to fear. What he found was a young troll, about his age, coming at him, daggers in her hands. Her face said bloody murder, and her stance said she knew how to dish it out. It was all Eridan could do to draw the sword his guardian had insisted that he always wear in the presence of the Heiress, and face the approaching danger, ready to put himself between his charges and the threat posed to them. No matter what his guardian had said he couldn't flee with the girls now and leave their backs open to an attack.

"Still here, fishy?" the female, cerulean from the look of her eyes, crooned as she approached. The way she was twirling her daggers through her fingers was talented but the kind of thing an amateur knife fighter did. It was a silly mistake that was at odds with the self-control of how she walked and the way her eyes watched him unflinchingly. A show then, along with that too sharp grin, meant to lull him into thinking she wasn't that good. Anyone trained to fight knew how to recognize those that weren't, knew how to pick up the signs, and she was deliberately giving them off. Cunning, and cunning was always a problem in a fight.

"What do you want, traitor?" he hissed at her as she stopped, more than just outside of his range. Smart. Too smart of a move.

"Lose your taste for reform, highblood?" the girl quipped, still grinning as she spoke. "Shame. Thought maybe you'd still be harboring some aspirations after all this time. But no, you don't have the shame globes for stabbing your moirail in the back, do you?"

His eyes must have widened at the words with how her grin morphed into an evil smirk. How could they not, though, when her words were enough to tell him far too much. The only thing that broke him out of the shock was the way the door they had entered through opened and spilled forth Enforcers behind him. They would take out this troll, then carry the Heiress and girls off. Except Eridan couldn't allow that. Wouldn't allow that. There were some fights that one had to handle for themselves. Some betrayals that were just too personal.

"Vriska," he greeted her as he slid easily into the defensive stance his guardian had taught him for knife fights.

"In the flesh, Ampora."

* * *

His arms were heavier now than in any other moment that he could remember. Before this he might have given that odious honor to the way his whole body felt after one of the three day death swims that Tethys took him on. After those his arms and legs were left so sore that he felt like he would just sleep in his private ablution trap after filling it with hot water and restorative herbs. His guardian said it was important for seadwellers to be able to swim for miles upon miles without stopping, and that such things went doubly so for those meant for the Enforcers. Eridan had never been sure whether or not he agreed, but his guardian had been the Generali of the Enforcers for more sweeps than he could even begin to fathom, and he wasn't about to doubt her word on something like that. After all, seadweller criminals were known to head out to the deep sea, and who knew when he'd be called upon to find one in the line of duty. The fact that he mostly spent his life in Seaedge and Capitol didn't mean he could avoid mastering the very basics of true seadweller life. Living on the land meant he had to work four times as hard at being better than most seadwellers got to in the course of their everynight lives.

None of that, though, compared to how he felt right here and now. His arms felt so heavy that he was certain their weight was actually causing his facial fins to droop to match. Not that the troll body actually worked like that, those muscles were only even distantly connected to each other, but it felt like a pretty good way to sum up the fact that he was pretty sure that if a buzzsect was to fly at his eyes right that second, he would do little to nothing to try and stop it. Unfortunately that lack of reactivity was going to get him in trouble with his instructor, especially if he let it get between him and the necessary fight. Already he could see that the tip of his battlestaff was dipping just a bit more than was strictly acceptable. All he could do, though, was try to keep the weapon steady and pray that the error wasn't...

As if the thought was the inspiration for the action, his sparring partner suddenly moved forward, their own padded battlestaff easily dancing around his sagging defenses and leaving him with a far from gentle whack upside his head. Bodily fatigue mixed with the blossoming brilliance of his pain and together they left Eridan no options but falling back onto the padded mat. His arms didn't even have the strength left in them to do anything but flop against the mat when they met it, denying his body even the instinctive motions that would cushion the fall.

"What the glub was that supposed to be?" Tethys demanded of him, the tip of her weapon coming to rest with a loud thump to the side of his head. The damn thing even had the nerve to come down close enough to a delicate facial fin to leave him flinching in fear. "I thought I told you to defend yourself. What's your excuse?"

For a long moment Eridan just rested there on the mat, staring blankly up toward the brushed metal finish of the trainingblock ceiling. There were patterns in the metal above him, swirls and ribs and arcs left by whatever device it was that polished the thing to that kind of shine. What was even the point of that kind of reflection to a surface like a ceiling? It wasn't enough to act as a mirror, and it certainly wasn't enough to bring much more light into the room. It was just there, he suspected, for trainees like himself to get caught up in when they had their fins handed to them on a cushioned platter.

"I'm tired," he announced at last, knowing he couldn't duck his guardian's question for long. Maybe he could have gotten away with it were they in any other part of the hive except for her officeblock, but not here. Here they weren't guardian and ward, they were instructor and student. They were commander and cadet. They were master and pathetic excuse for a trainee that could maybe sometimes prove his worth but really couldn't hold up to the excruciating and astronomically high standards that she expected in an eventual successor.

"Not my problem," Tethys declared in her Generali tone that all but ordered him back to his feet for another object lesson in why it was important to maintain one's guard even when certain that you were losing sensation in your fingertips.

He wanted to say that it was, wanted desperately to point out that what she was asking was impossible. Who could meet these kinds of standards when they hadn't slept in three days?

"That's the point," she snapped at him testily, proving that for all that he couldn't move his arms his mouth was still more than capable of flapping beyond his control when he was tired.

"I just don't get it," Eridan said at last, this time intentionally, as he continued to stare at the ceiling and make no move at all for his fallen sparring weapon. "What glubbing use am I supposed to be to anyone when I can barely keep my eyes open, much less my arms up? I mean, I'm going to be the Secondar of the Enforcers some sweep, right? It's not like I'll ever be expected to..."

"You never know what you will and won't be called upon to do," Tethys corrected him as she moved into his line of sight, resting no small part of her weight on the practice battlestaff as she looked down at him. "There's a reason I've kept you up this long. Have you thought about that?"

"I was considering that you're into..." Eridan trailed off, already feeling his cheeks heating as his blood rose at the thought of what he was going to suggest. There were rumors among the few old retirees who Tethys had brought in to schoolfeed him on everything an Enforcer needed to know that his guardian was into some of the more... creative black relationship interaction methods. Pleasure in inflicting and receiving... Anyway, it wasn't a rumor he wanted to bring up in front of her at any time, much less when she had a weapon in hand.

"I'll have to discuss appropriate subject matter with Clyide before your next schoolfeeding session," Tethys mused before sitting down beside him. Well, maybe sitting wasn't quite a graceful enough description of what she did. While never letting her hands leave the battlestaff Tethys had almost slid down it, going from a straight stand into a cross-legged sitting position without ever looking like she was vulnerable to attack. Eridan had to give his guardian something: she was something else entirely. "You're operating under some pretty faulty assumptions here, Eri."

It had been a long time since she'd she'd called him by that name. Once it had been the only thing she called him in private, now it was such a rarity that even hearing it made Eridan struggle to sit up to prove himself to her. Sometimes he wondered if their relationship had changed too soon, but there was little he could do about it now. They were what they were and he just had to deal with that.

"Enforcers never stop being off duty," she continued, as if she hadn't even realized the weight of the name she had chosen for him. "When one binds themself to the badge, who takes the oath, understands that it isn't something they can lay aside just because they want to or think they need to. We become the badge, the uniform, the mindset. That can mean giving our lives to protect others in our off hours. It can mean sometimes doing something by the book that is wrong or doing something right that is against the rules because it is what is necessary and right. It means that every moment we breathe we are bound into protecting others. And something you learn over the sweeps about giving yourself like that is that time and health aren't an issue. It doesn't matter if all your limbs are broken or you haven't slept in nights, you've got to be ready to face whatever comes your way."

"But..."

"No buts," Tethys insisted, shaking her head with a sad little sigh. "Eridan... Have I ever told you the story of how I met Gyliea?"

This time Eridan did sit up fully, for all that it made his pan swim from the fatigue. His whole body was screaming for him to sleep, to embrace what it was begging him from, and even happily suggesting that a slab wasn't needed because the training mats were comfortable enough. All of those he pushed aside for a chance to hear this story. It wasn't often that his guardian spoke of where she had come from or who she had been before he had come into the picture. She was a secretive person, perhaps as much for the purpose of protecting the people out of her past that she still cared about, or possibly because there were few of those around anymore, so why dredge up old memories?

"I was still relatively new to the Enforcers back then. It seems like so long ago. Anyway, I was born and raised and trained in a true ocean city called Oarfoam. You won't have heard of it, so don't bother wracking your pan for details. Except for the algal refineries that create the air scrubbers used in Seaedge and other mid cities like it, Oarfoam wasn't much of a place to be, seadweller or not. Some cities, despite the best efforts of society, don't want to be pulled up, don't want to be improved. They want to live just this side of the line of civilization. It was a place that when people weren't working they were going from job to slab in a drug induced fugue. They did everything, from soporifics to stimulants, from the chemicals that are used to keep deepteethfish from settlements to ground up coral slabs. It made no sense, but that was what it was like. My guardian was a factory worker who took me in after his former wardmate had died in an accident, and I grew up knowing the worst trolls could achieve. Or so I thought. So I joined the Enforcers.

"Down there it isn't about protecting trolls from each other, it's about protecting them from themselves. I was a hard girl, grew up in a hard neighborhood, and was taken in by the Enforcers secretly. I was trained in secret by a long since retired violet who had moved to Oarfoam to liaise for central's drug division. There was suspicion that one of the major Oarfoam dealers was moving product shallower and shallower, into more populated areas. They were giving the worst materials to the Oarfoam addicts, killing them more often than one would have thought acceptable for a business based on making money. Anyway, I was undercover for sweeps. Just another junkie finface that made her way into the affections of a dealer. That is, of course, until Gyliea, the Empress herself, came to Oarfoam to inspect the expansion of the refineries. It was early into her movement to create more mid cities, not to mention the expansion of Seaedge from a suburb of Capitol to a city and culture center in its own right which let sea and landdwellers experience each other's cultures more personally. And no, don't do the math. If I ever hear you guessing how old I am from that information, I will ground you, Enforcer or not.

"Anyway, Gyliea did what... Well, what she's best at..."

Tethys sighed, and for what it was worth Eridan didn't need more explanation than the sigh. It was the one his guardian reserved for when she was dealing with the Empress making foolish requests of her body guard detail, or of her moirail. To say it was a well known fact that the Empress was prone to ignoring precautions taken for her own safety was a bit of an understatement. Yet the truth was that Eridan had just come to assume that it had a lot to do with Gyliea having a lot of faith in the abilities of her moirail, his guardian, to keep her safe. Apparently it was a bit more than that.

"The Empress, may she be remembered for peace and prosperity, decided that inspection of the factories alone was below her. One of the things that many may forget is that the fuchsiabloods are indeed seadwellers, because time and time again the violets sent to protect her under in deep cities expect they can swim circles around her. Gyliea shrugged her escort off easily, as a fuchsia is wont to do, and explored a city that was far from what she had been told. Eventually some whalefluke high on thermal baked psychic boosters decided she was a likely mark to get some cash from to pay their dealer. I heard the outraged and indignant demands that he cease and desist from the mouth of a canalway, and went to look in on it, see if I couldn't help somehow. The guy was actually so high that he couldn't tell she wasn't just some other violet down on their luck and living in this place. Gyliea, she didn't have a weapon on her. That was likely the reason she hadn't dealt with the situation herself. Gyliea doesn't like to hurt people if she can avoid it, and so she avoids conflict. But the krillbreath drew a coral carving knife and I had to step in. I hadn't slept in three days, I was on no small amount of caffeine to help simulate the shaky hands and other small signs characteristic of a druggie, and yet looking at her I _knew _just what I was dealing with. This wasn't some violet, nor some of the more common fuchsias. There was a commanding presence there, a disbelief, a regret in the woman that I could only see as one thing. I grabbed the only weapon I had available to me: a rod of seabar wrapped in coral cement used in deep city hive construction and thus in the dilapidated building next to me, and I thrust myself between the junkie and what could only be my Empress.

"To make a long story a lot shorter, I was tired, worn, and ready to just collapse into a sleepension trap, and I had no choice but to fight. By the end one of my arms wasn't working right because of a terrible cut, I had the coral carving knife sticking out just barely above one of my air bladders, and my hand was torn up from the sharp coral plaster on the seabar. The druggie was slowly floating up before me, dead because I'd had the choice of his life or that of the Empress and myself. And the blood was drawing a pack of deepteethfish. Even then I was ready to keep fighting, despite the fact that I could barely keep in one place in the water."

"You survived though," Eridan offered at last, caught up in the story.

"Only because of the Empress. There is this thing about fuchsiabloods... I mean, she just threw out her hair to its full size in the water, flared out her fins as wide as they went, and opened her mouth like a deepteethfish maw to show off her teeth. There must be some pheromone as well to go with it, because the beasts saw her show, turned fin, and fled. She then grabbed me up and before I could explain who I was and why I really needed her to just go about as if I hadn't been there, I was in the midst of her entourage with an Enforcer trained in emergency healthtending seeing to my wounds. They took me back to Capitol with them, and before I knew it I was being trained as an officer and working cases I never would have had below. Within a sweep she had Oarfoam cleaned up due to increased Enforcer presence to overwhelm the dealers, and she kept demanding that I would be on her guard detail every time one was arranged. The moral of the story, of course, was..."

"Don't smoke," Eridan added in his more sage voice. Tethys jokingly said that the moral to every story that she told was 'don't smoke' and Eridan had chimed in with the moral after every story just out of pleasure of the little secret smile they shared. Of course, seadwellers didn't smoke; it did worse things to a collapsing and expanding bladder based aquatic vascular system than it did to the less complicated pusher-aeration sac system of landdwellers.

"Yes, and no," Tethys said, reserving a little smile for him even as she pushed herself to her feet. "The moral is that it doesn't matter who you are, what your position is, or what you think you're supposed to be doing. An Enforcer is always on duty, and has to be prepared for any situation. Sometimes that means flexible thinking. Sometimes it means training in a range of weapons that doesn't make sense to provide for every situation. And sometimes, for trolls like us who swear our lives to the Empress and her kin, it means learning every basic block and attack pattern we can managed with as many weapons as possible under a wider range of conditions than should be feasible. When the life you're ready to give your own for is the voice, face, and power of our world, you have to be able to take any weapon that comes to hand to protect them, even if you're about to fall over from fatigue. You have to be able to deliver a proper block-punch combo even if your leg is broken so badly that your pan can't hold an intelligent thought for the pain you're in. The body has to know how to act when the brain can't. If keeping the Empress or Heiress alive means keeping you from seeing your slab for a few days, then so be it. But until you can do the blocks and counters without thinking despite your fatigue, we're going to keep at it. What do you say to that?"

As she finished her speech his guardian held her hand out to him, making her opinion more than clear on the subject. Still, it was equally clear that this was a choice, maybe the last one he'd ever be offered. He could either take her hand and commit himself to the pain, suffering, and mindless repetition she needed and expected from him, or he could walk away. Walk away from the Enforcers his pusher had been set on for sweeps, walk away from his oath to protect his moirail, and walk away from all the hope his guardian had come to place in him.

His grip was strong as his fingers wrapped around her wrist, just as strong as hers, though maybe a bit more hesitant because of the fatigue. Still, he smiled up at his guardian and she smiled back as she gripped his own wrist and helped him haul himself to his feet.

"I can sleep when I'm dead."

"That's the spirit! Now, let's do it again."

All he could do was hope to never need the skills she was offering him, and put his all into learning them anyway. Feferi deserved no less.

* * *

Closing Notes: Laeris Mavrik belongs to jormungandrising of tumblr. Alrena Mitrea belongs to laceupinrainbow of tumblr (currently lacesweaterpumpkinbow for Halloween).


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Notes: Back. I'm here. Look at me! I've got another chapter for you. Look how pretty and long it is. I hope to keep to this style with Eridan's story. Less predictable updates, but when you get them, you GET them.

* * *

Fighting the Current – Part Three

"Vriska."

"In the flesh, Ampora. And I've got to say, you're really doing a lot of my job for me, leaving the fuchsia flock here. So kind."

The mocking, derisive edge to Vriska's voice was almost enough to set him off all on its own. But that wasn't everything. No, it was the far too clear threat to the young girls in his protection that found Eridan's body moving long before he resolved to do so in his pan. His sword is a bright flash as he lunges forward, his body shifting his weight just right so that when he stopped moving forward his arms did not and they cut fast and deadly toward Vriska's arm. It would have connected, cutting easily through the ceruleanblood's slender arm, were it not for the fact that she reacted with reflexes that could only come from extensive training. Even as she twisted her arm out of reach, her other hand came around, dagger squeezed tightly in a reverse grip. With a limited and efficient movement the blade hit his and knocked his weapon aside. It would have been easy enough to avoid if he'd put more thought into his attack, but as it was Eridan flinched back and tried to calm down and decide how to play this.

The question, ultimately, came down to two choices. Was he going to kill her here and now, or try and take her prisoner? A brief glimpse around the block told him that the chances of the Enforcers taking any other captives wasn't the most likely thing. There needed to be more information, and Vriska was going to be the source of it if Eridan could help it. His mind finally made up, Eridan threw himself fully into the fight, blade darting in repeatedly to try and break through Vriska's defenses and disarm or disable her.

They were a dance of strikes and blocks, parries and jabs, and blow upon blow, and Eridan couldn't help but revel in the fact that each strike he made was slowly but surely moving Vriska further away from the gathered fuchsiabloods. She was good, very well trained in truth, but he was better. Far better. Given time this fight would go his way, and he would drag her with them, put her in a dark cell underwater, and make her spill everything.

Then, without any warning, the feeling of the fight changed. Vriska moved without warning into aggressive movements, ducking under a blow meant to distract her and before Eridan could redirect into a block, her dagger was lashing in toward his gills. Instinct, not training, found him stumbling back a step to protect the delicate tissues. Training took a moment to come back to command, but once Eridan had his legs under him properly he brought his sword down at her head in a two-handed strike, only to have her catch the blow on the hilts of her crossed daggers. That wasn't going to be good, and Tethys was going to yell at him later for letting her get that kind of advantage on him, because Vriska didn't wait to redirect the blow to the side, leaving Eridan off-balance and unable to stop her from getting her daggers to his throat. She had won, and he had failed. Failed Feferi, failed the fuchsias, and failed everything he'd set out to do in his life.

Why then did he feel like all hope wasn't lost yet?

"Eridan," she hissed, low and under her breath and Eridan only just barely caught his name.

"This isn't the time for talk, Serket," he spat back at her, glaring down at her and just wanting her to get on with it already. Either kill him or leave the opening that some people invariably did that would let him turn this back his way.

"And yet, here we are," she countered, voice low and sad for all that it was serious. "Eridan, you have to get the Heiress out immediately. Veruna will have them killed if you remain here."

"Like you care," he snapped, even as he was less than sure of his words. "You're trying to..."

Kill the Heiress, right? But the look on Vriska's face, the pure concern and fear in her eyes, spoke words he didn't know how to decode.

"Save your glubbing life. Just take my word for this. You NEED to get them to safety. Please. They are our future."

A warning? That made a grand total of zero sense when it came from someone who was pretty much threatening to slit his throat. Still, the whispers, the worry, the reservation, it was everything he would expect from someone who was legitimately on his side.

"Vriska..."

"We've been still too long," she insisted, cutting him off. "I need you to knock me down. Then look around, notice the approaching force, and command your men to grab the girls and leave, like your guardian commanded."

"I..."

"Just do it, fish soup pan!" she snapped, and his body moved before his pan could react. His knee thrust into her stomach, her breath coming out just a second early to lessen the blow, and even that didn't stop the audible crack that could only mean he had broken a rib or two in the blow. But that wasn't enough, he knew that it couldn't be enough. There was a feeling, deep down in his gut, that if any of this plan that he didn't understand was going to work, he couldn't leave it with simply a knee. The only thing left to him, as he looked down at his hand, was the sword he was still holding. While he didn't know quite why he did it, Eridan lifted the blade and lashed out, washing his blade cut across Vriska's face, over her multi-pupiled eye, and then pull away coated in blue. Vriska fell away from his blow, his eyes following her motion, and then his vision was drawn toward the still approaching group of enemy seadwellers.

"Get the girls out of here," he shouted over his shoulder as he backed away from Vriska. "Now!"

"Eridan!" Feferi wailed, and almost unthinking he twisted to face her. Her eyes met his, pleading for something that he didn't know how to put into words. Still she was in the midst of the fuchsiabloods, though the other girls were fading away as the Enforcers who had poured from the entrance started to haul them away in their arms. She still held Antees in her arms, clutching the clearly unconscious yellowblood to her chest, and when he saw her like that he almost melted. His moirail, his goddess guarding the weak and weary. All he could do was take her away from the horrors that were visited upon her here and hope to see her alive to the throne. From there, well, from there he had to make sure she stayed safe while he cleaned all of this up.

"Fef," he whispered in pity as he ran to her side and hauled her to her feet by her elbow. She struggled to keep Antees carefully cradled in her arms even as she strained not to get tangled in the loose flows of her own gown. When her arm tangled in a trailing scarf Eridan just grabbed the offending fabric and tore it loose. For a moment her face was the picture of regal indignation at the damage to her dress, but Eridan just ignored it and continued to rush her to her feet. "We don't have time for pretty dresses. We have to get the girls out of here and somewhere safe, and they're too scared to go without you."

The words were just enough, and he knew it long before he said them. Indignation was replaced with a self-assured confidence as she turned on her heels and let two Enforcers rush her through the door, both looking toward the advancing seadwellers and clearly tempted to pull their laserpistols to shoot.

"The safety of the Heiress is our primary objective," Eridan snapped at them in the same sort of voice that Tethys always used to get her men to obey without hesitation. Both pushed Feferi forward, looking quite ready to pick her up should he command, but there was a stiffness to their motions that bespoke their distaste for following Eridan's orders even as they left the Empress and Generali behind. Still, they obeyed, sweeps of training and their unflinching certainty that Tethys would have the head of any Enforcer who dared value her life over the Heiress's only serving to speed them along.

Eridan was the last through the door, left standing there for half a moment has he watched his guardian start to rise to her feet, ready to draw her blade. Again he saw something in her stance that he knew others wouldn't pick up on. The very sight of it made his chest hurt, made tears threaten to fall. There was confidence in her stance, but pain as well. Pain and fury and resignation. It was all he needed to see to be certain of something he had feared since the sound of the explosion. If the Empress wasn't dead yet, she soon would be. There would be no chance to bring in a healthtender in time to save her life. And his guardian, the woman who had given him so much, had no intention of leaving her lost moirail's side.

"Secure the doors," Eridan commanded as he turned and strode away from the pair who were moving to shut the door behind him. "Buy us as much time as you can, but don't throw your lives away unless there is no other option. No more needless bloodshed."

It was all so needless.

"Eridan!" Feferi protested, her face a picture of denial and fear. "The Empress..."

"Is in the Generali's hands," he countered, keeping his voice as level as possible. She wasn't ready for the news, no more than he was. Unlike him, though, she could be spared from it for a while, and he had every intention of protecting her as long as he could manage. "In the meantime, my orders are to protect you and your sisters. I'll give my life to that end, even if I have to knock you out myself to do it."

"Feffy," one of the youngest of the fuchsias whimpered, tugging on the hem of her gown. "I'm scared."

"I..."

"We have to get you all somewhere safe. The sub-levels. I want five troops in front of them, check every corridor but don't be slow about it. We need to get these girls into the panicblock. Any men you find along the way need to be..."

"Let me lead, sir," a hoarse voice begged, and then all eyes were on Antees as she struggled out of Feferi's arms. "Please. I..."

"You can barely stand on your own," Eridan snapped. "I can't..."

"Sir," another Enforcer at his elbow, a teal by the name of Dysoin if his memory served, cut into the conversation. "Forgive me for interrupting, but if I carry the Visionar in front of everyone else, she could forewarn us of any conflicts that might arise."

"No," she whimpered, shaking her head. "I can't... I couldn't... Secondar, sir, I'm expendable. Please, if I go first then..."

"Dysoin, carry the Visionar at the front. Stop for a moment at every intersection and make sure to turn her in every direction. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" the old tealblood confirmed before striding forward and lifting Antees from Feferi's arms.

"But Eridan!" Feferi protested, and all he could do was shake his head. Somehow, this time, she listened.

"Five in front, with Dysoin. The rest behind. When we come to intersections one from front and back moves to the side until we're clear. I've got the rear. Any complaints can hold it until we get the girls safe. Move out!"

The group moved as quickly as it could, considering that they were limited to the speed that the youngest of the fuchsiabloods could be asked to maintain. Were it not for the security issue it would present, Eridan would have had the others carry the girls with him, but as it was there was only so much that could be reasonably done while still leaving them free to fight if it was necessary. As for Eridan, he found himself in the middle of the throng at Feferi's side, the Heiress refusing to let him more than an arm's length away from her. That was the worst part, being stuck in the center of a ring of protection, in no place to guard the troll most important to him. He wanted nothing more than to go back into the block and join his guardian in the fight that was clearly going on back there.

"Who was she?"

And he was no more likely to be involved in that fight than he was likely to have some peace and quiet or a chance to think about what had happened.

"Who was who?" he asked, even though he knew playing dumb was going to get him nowhere.

"Don't you coddle me, Eridan. That gill you were angling with. She called out to you. You clearly knew who she was. So tell me who and how you reely know her."

It was a story as complex and confusing as what Vriska had said to him, what she had asked. The only question was just how much he knew and how it all fit together.

* * *

caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]

CA: youre vvriska then

AG: Wow the spam8ots are getting pretty talented these nights. Someone has to applaud the cre8ors of these realistic programs.

AG: So where's the unsu8scri8e 8utton?

CA: vvery funny but im not here to make jokes

CA: are you or are you not vvriska serket

AG: Who's asking? 8ecause if you're a cy8ermarketer I'm going to find a way to make your husktop explode. Trust me, I'm talented like that.

CA: my name doesnt matter all that matters is the fact that wwe need to havve a little talk

CA: and before you get your finger hovvering ovver ovver the block button may i say that the enforcers had your guardian under suspicion for about half a swweep

AG: AAAAAAAALL right, you've got my attention finface. If you're so smart just what did the Enforcers suspect him of?

CA: there wwere more than just a feww reports about abuse of powwer and authority at his production facility

CA: the problem wwas that wwe couldnt get anyone to talk beyond the initial reports

AG: And now you're actually going to suggest that I can work to give you new information a8out Spided that could 8e used on him in future court proceedings.

AG: Well, save your 8reath, 8ait-8er, I've got nothing to say to you or anyone a8out Spided. I made that perfectly clear during the custody hearings on Karkat Vantas.

CA: im not hear about vvantas im here about any of that im here because i havve a hard time believving that a cerulean raised by a hemohierarchist isnt exactly likely to havve gotten by wwithout learning about them

AG: Who says I've got anything to tell you?

CA: im asking not as someone wwith enforcer connections im asking as

CA: an interested party

* * *

caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]

CA: vvris you got a feww minutes

AG: Dammit, Ampora, I'm not here to 8e your sounding 8oard a8out your damn moirail and issues with the system.

CA: this isnt about fef

AG: Your last five messages have 8een 8ugging me a8out your damn pro8lems. Take it to a thinkrapist or just face your 'rail.

CA: dammit i said this isnt about fef

AG: Sure, that's what you're saying. 8ut give it a8out ten minutes and wh8ver you start with will devolve into 8eing a8out her. Anyway, let's just move on. What do you need?

CA: run it by me again

AG: This, in case you're not sure a8out it, is the sound of me sighing. Anyway, it's not all sugar and gum8alls no matter what propaganda the 'archists want to spew.

AG: They talk 8ig a8out the way things work, how it's wrong and 8ackwards and how it should 8e that 'high8loods' that are served 8ecause their lives are longer. That it is a waste to spend their lives in service.

AG: 8ut you know how they do it? 8y 8eing amoral. We're not talking gray morality here, we're talking a lack of it. The only way for them to win that reality is to overthrow, through violence, the current paradigm.

AG: And so they have to strike at those 8elow them, and they feel they have that right. They will kill, they will maim, they will do anything and everything to further their cause.

CA: im not sure theyre entirely wwrong

AG: Here we go. Time to 8ring Fef into this. You've told me a lot a8out her, Eridan, and I sorta met her myself. I understand where you're coming from, 8ut she doesn't seem the sort of troll to just take a hemohierarchist world sitting down.

CA: you dont understand ivve seen her at the end of the night vvris so tired wworn evven and it is all she can do some nights to shuffle into her sleepspension trap because she doesnt havve the energy to make it to her slab

CA: evvery night she givves more and more of herself to this damn system and its already wwearing on her more than you can evven imagine

CA: and shes got swweeps of this in the future swweeps and swweeps and evvery night wweighs on her more

CA: shes my moirail i havve a responsibility to

CA: to

AG: To let her live her own life. Make her own decisions. Make her own mistakes. She is her own person and that is what makes you pity her so much, right?

CA: wwhen you put it like that you sound a bit like a thinkrapist

AG: I've 8een in a serious red relationship with a thinkrapist for a while. Some things ru8 off on you.

AG: And I swear if you make any sort of joke a8out that, I will find you and throttle you, Ampora.

CA: i just wwant her to be happy

AG: And you think this would do it?

* * *

caligulasAquarium [CA] began trolling arachnidsGrip [AG]

CA: vvris

AG: Oh god not this again!

AG: She's your moirail, and she gave herself willingly into this position. Will you stop 8eing such a minnow a8out this?

CA: the hierarchists do you think they can wwin

AG: You're the Enforcer here, not me. 8ut no, I don't think they can, Eridan.

CA: wwhy

AG: 8ecause there are trolls out there, trolls like you and me, who won't let them. For the sakes of the ones we care a8out. For Feferi, for Kanaya, for everyone we know. We won't stop until they lose.

CA: you sure you dont wwant to join up wwith the enforcers

AG: Still no. So flop off little fishy and leave the land pro8lems to me.

arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling caligulasAquarium [CA]


End file.
